1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power-supply cable unit, a relay connector, and an electronic unit, and in particular to a power-supply cable unit, a relay connector, and an electronic unit using an IC card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, electronic devices to which an IC (Integrated Circuit) card such as a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card can be loaded have become known. For example, a personal computer and a cell-phone are known as examples of such electronic devices. However, when the electronic device to which the IC card is loaded is used, for example, an IC may be electrically damaged upon the insertion and extraction (hot-swap) of the IC card while electric power is supplied.
A cell-phone therefore has a configuration in which a battery pack loaded section and an IC card-loading section are located to face each other, and the IC card cannot be extracted as long as the battery pack is not extracted. A batteryless personal computer having a locking mechanism is known. This locking mechanism locks an IC card with a power plug when electric power is supplied. For example, JP 2011-27110A discloses a locking mechanism with a locking stick provided in a jack of a power plug and a locking mechanism with a motor and a magnet, in order to prevent the hot-swap of the IC card.
However, the conventional locking mechanism requires that an insertion slot of an IC card be provided near a jack of a power plug. When an IC card is directly locked with the power plug, it is necessary to provide the jack of the power plug and the insertion slot of the IC card to be close to each other. However, such a configuration may not be achieved due to the mounting limitation. In this case, the insertion slot of the IC card and the jack of the power plug are provided to be close to each other with other substrates. Such substrates complicate the configuration because the substrates are overlapped. Moreover, when the jack of the power plug and the insertion slot of the IC card are overlapped, the opening of the cover is increased, which causes deterioration in external appearance. Furthermore, when the jack of the power plug and the slot of the IC card are arranged far from each other, a locking mechanism is provided with electric control, so that the number of components is increased.